December 2012

Lackawanna, Promised Land and Nescopeck are among the 18 Pennsylvania State Parks sponsoring free, guided hikes on New Year's Day to help visitors ring in 2013 with healthy exercise and a glimpse of nature's winter beauty.

First Day Hikes have been taking place for 20 years as part of a national effort organized by the National Association of State Park Directors and launched in Newton, Mass. State involvement has grown to the point where, for the first time in 2012, all 50 state park systems are participating.

Northern Lehigh controlled the tempo and dominated Jim Thorpe en route to a 56-20 victory in the Slatington Rotary Basketball Tournament title game. This is the seventh consecutive year the Bulldogs have won the tournament.

The Bulldogs' biggest contribution came from Josh Eden, who scored a game-high 16 points, with 14 coming in the first half. Lucas Pierce also chipped in 12 points for the Bulldogs.

A new youth writers group in Tamaqua, called League Of Literaries (LOL), has started to meet every week at the Tamaqua Community Arts Center in Tamaqua. The group meets every Tuesday from 6 to 7 p.m. at the center, 125 Pine Street. There is no cost to participate and only middle or high school students can join. For more information, follow them on Facebook or call (570) 952-1995.

December 29, 1960

Allegedly playing the game called "chicken," three Weissport brothers, aged 10, 8, and 5, stood on the tracks of the Jersey Central Railroad at the Weissport grade crossing, gambled with their lives, and won. Martin A. Otto of Lehighton, engineer of the 130 car eastbound freight train, en route from the local yards to Jersey City, N.J., said he saw the boys on the track and thought they were caught on a rail. He sounded the air horn and they did not move. He dumped the sand and jammed on the brakes. They jumped when the engine was a short distance from them.

Officials from Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) and Albright College gathered at LCCC's Morgan Center in Tamaqua recently to celebrate Albright's program offerings at LCCC and discuss additional collaboration opportunities.

While Albright has offered its Degree Completion Program at LCCC in Schnecksville for more than a decade, it recently announced plans to offer two degrees (Organizational Behavior/Applied Psychology and Business Administration) in Tamaqua.

Center teaches parenting to families, single parents

By ANDREW LEIBENGUTH aleibenguth@tnonline.com

Care Net of Tamaqua encourages both families and single parents to stop by and learn about parenting during their open house held recently.

The center, which opened April of 2011, was established to assist and support single pregnant teens. Volunteers stated that as much greater needs beyond the pregnancy has become apparent, our role expanded to aid the existing family in developing sustainable life skills.

Dogs were a part of growing up in Jim Thorpe in the 1950s. We shared a back yard with my grandparents. Midway between our house and theirs was a dog coop with a pair of beagles. When I was five, my parents bought me a fox terrier we named Buttons. He was a frisky little guy, short of hair and springy of leg. He liked to run around the yard, while I shot plastic balls at him from a bazooka-like air gun. I don't think those balls had anything to do with what happened to him on Christmas Eve 1953.

He stood listening to the salesman. I heard him ask several questions of his own. I watched as he looked at the big gleaming radio control helicopter with joyful interest. That little boy at heart was enthralled.

His name was Harry.

We were shopping a week before Christmas and had parted ways for a bit. When I located him, he was at one of those kiosks that set up temporary homes each Christmas, selling seasonal gifts, enticing young and old with their Pied Piper ways.

Not only do you get a large radio control helicopter, but it comes with a little one, too.

Another year has come and gone and as 2012 leaves and 2013 enters at least as I write this we face the fiscal cliff. With regard to this topic and what astounds me is how many people don't seem to get it. This is not a matter of whether tax rates should be changed and on which class of citizens or should I say which wage earners should be hit for the bill. This is a matter of 538 out of control senators and representatives who are hooked on spending other people's money. Yet people are not mad enough at them yet. Instead they choose to fight with each other.

Things start at home. My parents explained to me early that even "good"people have a SIN nature and showed me in the Bible that there is an eternal fork in the road of life dividing the heaven and hell bound. This was my introduction to evil 101. As a sinner myself in a world full of selfish short sighted people I grew up with such knowledge of consequences in the forefront of my mind. This topic concerning the depravity of man crystallized in my thinking and became the basis for my optimism and critical thinking skills

Route 309 closed for hours; rig goes down 40 foot bank

By ANDREW LEIBENGUTH aleibenguth@tnonline.com

Rescue crews had to extricate the male driver of a tractor trailer after he crashed his rig through a guardrail, down a 40-foot embankment and into trees along the southbound lane of Claremont Avenuce (SR309) just south of Skipper Dippers in Still Creek, Rush Township.

Due to the slippery surfaces, firefighters utilized a rescue litter and rope to lift the driver, 68-year old Ronald Aktinson of Allentown, up the snow-covered embankment to an awaiting ambulance.

Teacher hoping the new technology will be expanded in district

By ANDREW LEIBENGUTH aleibenguth@tnonline.com

Melissa Day, who serves as the K-12 Instructional Support Specialist for the Tamaqua Area School District, has been an integral part in the implementation and adoption of a new tool used in the education and development of Tamaqua Elementary School students.

Tamaqua Area School District adopted, and is using, Turning Technologies' ResponseCard NXT clickers, in part with Study Island; an academic software provider of standards-based assessment, instruction and test preparation e-learning programs.

Todd Miller uses a snow blower to remove heavy snow and slush from the sidewalk of an East Broad Street property in Tamaqua. Rapid changes in temperatures over the last two days has resulted in high winds and plenty of frozen sidewalks and roadways today.

The Lansford American Legion Post 123 was the recipient of this year's Lansford Alive Black Diamond award, which was presented to Legion members recently during the Black Diamond banquet and ceremony held recently at the post.

"The award was given to the post for their many efforts in making the community a better place," said Chris Ondrus, President, Lansford Alive.

Dena Michelsen, 35, of Pocono Lake, was committed to the Monroe County Correctional Facility, Snydersville, after her arraignment on simple assault charges stemming from a domestic incident at 8:25 p.m. Dec. 23 at 2127 Totel Trail, Tobyhanna Township, according to Pocono Mountain Regional Police.

Police said the victim, Conrad Michelsen, 48, also of Pocono Lake and identified as the husband of the defendant, told police the woman had assaulted him. Officers observed several scratch marks on the man's face, neck and arms.